EFFICIENCY OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN HOSPITALS: A RESEARCH ON THE HOSPITALS IN CENTRAL ANATOLIA

Year 2013, Volume: 13 Issue: 26, 1 - 22, 01.12.2013

Azzem Özkan Filiz Özşahin Koç İbrahim Çidem

Abstract

Due to the globalization effects where there are no commercial boundaries,
businesses are trying to survive in a highly competitive environment. Information is one
of the most important elements that can provide competitive advantage. In fact, rapid and
continuous changes in technologies made our age as an information age. Naturally,
getting accurate decisions depends on the presentation of information accurately and
timely.
All businesses can access to external sources of information. However, different
information can be obtained from the company’s internal information systems. Among
these information systems, accounting information system can be stated as one of the
oldest and most productive one. In today’s competitive environment, accounting
information system has more strategic importance. Because accounting information
system determines company’s financial objectives, identifies financial results and stores
the information in order to benefit from those results. The effectiveness of these systems
will increase the quality of the information provided. Quality information will increase the
effectiveness of the decision. In this research, firstly conceptual framework is presented.
Explained concepts are accounting information systems and effectiveness.
Information are processed in accordance with previous methods, shared with
communication between people who make society, passed to others and is a new shape of
knowledge. In other words, it changes something or people (Öğüt, 2003:9). In economies
shaped according to information, it has become a necessity for organizations to ground on
information and develops knowledge-based methods. In the global economy information
shapes the environmental conditions and organizations need to get rid of the obsolete
plans and policies and redesign their structures according to information (Özcan and
Barca, 2008:143). Nowadays, it can be said that every organization is an information
organization and every society is an information society. Therefore, information becomes
a primary resource as well as money and staff. Information is considered as an abstract
concept or concrete concept that is often presented in the forms of reports or statements.
Decisions that are taken by using various kind of information are future
depending and because of this reason it carries a number of risks and uncertainties. Today,
organizations are under the influence of constant and rapid change and this situation
leaves managers in a difficult situation day by day. The most appropriate way to avoid
those effects is to increase the value and level of the knowledge used in decisions.
Information used in decision making need to have various features in order to be
valuable. These features are accuracy, preciseness, relevance, affordability and simplicity
(Gökçen, 2007:5). Utilization of knowledge is the factor that will differentiate the
organizations operating in a highly competitive environment. Being able to obtain
information, managing it in a positive way and having an effective information flow within the organization will gain an advantage. Businesses are aware that old methods no
longer can protect them. Even today, success depends on innovation, marketing, service,
value and quality. Having these qualifications is related to how the organizations benefit
from knowledge.
Improvements in the economy and administrative methods affected
management processes. Accounting has become an integrated information system that
benefits from book keeping, cost accounting, financial accounting, management
accounting and international accounting (Al-Qudah, 2011: 367).
Providing information to internal users in high-quality, timely and cost efficient
way depends on the integration of accounting information systems and other information
systems in the organization (Butkevicius, 2009: 148). Businesses who realize the
integration of accounting information systems and other information systems will gain
competitive advantage and increase efficiency.
Information is one of the basic inputs within the organization and mostly
produced by accounting information system. Information produced by accounting
information system is used as an input particularly by management information systems
and others.
Efficiency is redesigning organization’s structure in order to achieve the goals
by evaluating the resources, cooperation and taking into consideration the environmental
factors. To achieve these goals, all levels of the organization’s contributions need
evaluation (Dinçer and FĠdan, 2011:54). Determining the level of activity in a highly
competitive environment helps businesses to determine their level and appropriate outputs
from inputs.
From the point of organizations, efficiency is a criteria used to determine
sufficient usage of inputs in accordance with determined goals. So, it indicates the level of
determined goals that have been achieved. In other words, efficiency indicates how close
the actual results compared to determined standard are (Yükçü and Atağan, 2009:3).
Efficiency of an accounting information system depends on the integration of
accounting information system. Organizational coordination and control activities require
quality information production and it can be achieved by information system’s design and
integration resulting to an efficient accounting information system (Nicolaou, 2000:95).
Integration of accounting information system means designing a system that will provide
information to be used effectively in the solution of problems encountered in the
organizational control and coordination activities.
Variables that affect organizational coordination and control activities’ need for
information are (a) the degree of the institutionalization of the organization (b)
dependence of the need for information between functions within the organization (c) the
relationship of the organization with others related with information sharing and
dependence to each other due to electronic data interchange (Nicolaou, 2000:91).
After the explanation of concepts used in the study, a survey is conducted to the
hospitals operating in Central Anatolia Region in order to identify factors affecting the
efficiency of the accounting information systems. Data were obtained from 63 of 112
hospitals operating in Central Anatolia Regions and providing health services with bed
option. Surveys are made by telephone and face-to-face interview technique with hospital
managers.
According to the purpose of this study two models were set. In the first model,
efficiency of accounting information systems and its dependency with organizations’ functions were examined. In the second model, the relationship between the integration of
accounting information system and organizational performance were analyzed. Results
indicate that dependency of the information between the functions in hospitals has a
positive impact on the efficiency of accounting information system and integration of the
accounting information system has a positive impact on organizational performance.
For an effective business management, accounting information management
system has an important role among the systems that generate the needed information.
The integration of this system in order to provide information exchange with other
business departments will increase the performance of the organization as a whole. In
fact, hypothesis testing revealed that accounting information systems’ integration has an
effect on organizational performance and beta coefficient was calculated as 0.440.
In recent years, improvements in the health sector in Turkey, facilitation of
access to health care services and the increasing demand for health tourism has led to a
significant increase in the number of organizations providing health care services. As a
result, an intensive competition began among the health care services. In this regard, it is
recommended that accounting information system can contribute to improve performance
of the system and integration of the accounting information system with other business
functions.

Keywords

Accounting Information Systems, Health Sector

HASTANELERDE MUHASEBE BİLGİ SİSTEMİ ETKİNLİĞİ: İÇ ANADOLU BÖLGESİNDE FAALİYET GÖSTEREN HASTANELER ÜZERİNDE BİR ARAŞTIRMA

Abstract

Teknolojide hızlı değişmelerin ve küreselleşmenin yaşandığı günümüzde işletmelerin gereksinimleri de etkilenmiştir. Klasik üretim faktörleri arasında yer alamayan bilgi, günümüzde işletmelere rekabette katkı sağlayan önemli bir unsur haline gelmiştir. İşletmeler ihtiyaç duydukları bilgiyi dış kaynaklardan sağlayabileceği gibi işletme içinden de elde edebilirler. İşletmelerin yapısında bilgi üreten birçok sistem bulunmaktadır. Ancak bunlar içerisinde en eskisinin ve en önemlisinin muhasebe bilgi sistemi olduğu söylenebilir. Haliyle bu sistemin etkin bir şekilde çalışması, işletmenin tümünün etkinliğini artıracaktır.Bu çalışmada muhasebe bilgi sisteminin etkinliği üzerinde durulmuş ve son yıllarda yaşanan olumlu gelişmelerle, hizmet veren işletme sayısında ve rekabette artış yaşanan sağlık sektöründe muhasebe bilgi sisteminin etkinliğini etkileyen unsurların ve muhasebe bilgi sisteminin entegrasyonun işletme performansına etkilerinin tespit edilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Bu amaçla İç Anadolu Bölgesi’nde şehir merkezlerinde faaliyet gösteren hastaneler üzerinde bir araştırma yapılmıştır. Sonuç olarak işletme fonksiyonları arası bilgi bağlılığının, muhasebe bilgi sisteminin etkinliği; muhasebe bilgi sistemi entegrasyonunun ise işletme performansı üzerinde etkisi bulunduğu belirlenmiştir.

Keywords

Muhasebe Bilgi Sistemi, Sağlık Sektörü